***This newsletter is not copyrighted so feel free to send it to your friends or relatives or feel free to print it out and show it to people.***

I would like to thank the following people for giving donations to help make this newsletter possible and to help maintain our Vegetarian-Restaurants.net site: Carole Franklin, CodeWell LLC, Dennis Talasco, Madhurima Vangipuram, Joseph Lauro, Dawn Friedman, Mark Thew, Natasha Davis, Kenneth Rhoads, Bhaskar Manda, Pradeep Saini, and Sandra Herman.

Please feel free to print this newsletter and show it to your friends.Also if you want to put anything from this Newsletter on your web site please feel free to use anything.
In return we just ask that you give a link to Vegetarian-Restaurants.net
(http://www.vegetarian-restaurants.net) Natural Nirvana (http://www.naturalnirvana.com) is our new sales web site selling vegan, vegetarian and spiritual products.

Cruelty Free, and No Animal Testing Does Not Mean Animal Ingredients-Free

An important point is that there is no law that requires that animal testing be used to confirm that cosmetics and household products are safe to use.

It is not unusual that companies use the term "cruelty-free" on their product even though they are far from it. A goal of this newsletter is to expose these companies by name and products.
If you know of any such companies email us at vrupdates@yahoo.com (don't worry we will not mention you by name).

Many of the products that you find in major supermarkets and department stores are tested on animals and contain animal ingredients.
Also just because a product is sold in a health food store does not mean that it is cruelty free or free of artificial, harmful ingredients.
Also many companies list a product as not tested on animals but the individual ingredient have been tested on animal, but of course they do not tell you that.

Also some natural companies are subsidiaries of major companies that see nothing wrong with animal testing and actively engage in it.
Because a product is listed as being Vegan does not mean that it has not been tested on animals. Vegan is a term that is used to indicate that no the product does not contain any animal derived ingredients (including milk or wool).

Just because companies says their products are Cruelty-Free and that they do not test their products or purchase their ingredients from companies that do test on animals does not even in the slightest guarantee that they are actually Cruelty-Free. The reason for this is that the products may contain animal-derived ingredients which causes animals to die. Of course the fact that a company does not test on animals is a good thing.

CCIC Cosmetic & Body Care Companies List That Don't Test on Animals

The Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics (http://www.leapingbunny.org) has a list of companies that make cosmetics, personal care and household products who have signed an agreement that they will not engage in Animal Testing of their products or purchase ingredients from companies that engage in Animal Testing.

Formed in 1996, CCIC is comprised of these leading national animal protection groups:
American Anti-Vivisection Society
American Humane Association
Animal Protection Institute
Beauty Without Cruelty, U.S.A.
Doris Day Animal League
The Humane Society of the United States
New England Anti-Vivisection Society

PETA has compiled an excellent list of companies and charities that do not test their products on animals. They also have a list of companies and charities that do test on animals.
http://www.animalsavingsclub.com/

have a list of companies that do not test on animal Click Here to see their list.

CORRECTION: In the previous newsletter I incorrectly stated that Smuckers Brown Cow and Knudsen Juices were owned by incorrect companies. Actually Brown Cow is owned by Stonyfield
& Partially owned by Danone and Knudsen is owned by Smuckers. Sorry for this mistake.

Also please note that changes of ownership is not necessarily a bad thing, but I am mainly pointing it out to indicate that even the most well-meaning company may suddenly change its policies because of change of ownership.

I talked to the former owner of Fantastic Foods who helps compile the cheese site listed below and he told me that the new owners of Fantastic Foods also have the highest standard of vegetarian integrity as he has.

Two major makers of cruelty-free products �the Body Shop and Tom's of Maine � have been acquired by major multination companies.
The Body Shop was purchased by L'Oreal and Tom's of Maine was purchased by Colgate. Colgate is one company that has shown little regard whether their products are animal-free so you definitely
would want to look at how these companies develop in the future.

Both of these companies have pledged to keep up their policies of not using animal-testing
and that their products will remain cruelty-free.
Tom's of Maine's products do not contain any animal ingredients and do not contain artificial
preservatives, sweeteners or dyes.

St. Ives soaps
Basically all St. Ives soaps may contain animal ingredients made from beef or pork or they can be derived from
coconut or palm kernel oil, but as they company does not declare
what they contain you can not be sure whether they contain animal ingredient.
There St Ives soaps are not recommended for use by vegetarians.

Jergens Products
Most of the Jergens products contain some animal by-products and for the most part you should assume all of them do.
For more information you can contact JERGENS at 800-742-8798.

Toothpaste Ingredients that Contain and Do Not Contain Animal Ingredients
A major point to understand in reference to toothpastes is that glycerin can come from pig or cow in addition
to plants.

Crest says they will be going to use glycerin from a vegetarian source in the future, which means that it
is made from animal ingredient right now.
Sensodyne uses animal (beef).

Colgate has a list of the toothpastes that they make which are vegetarian.
Click Here to view the letter from Colgate listing the toothpaste product they produce made with vegetarian
ingredients. Letter from Colgate

All Colgate Toothbrushes are free of any animal-derived ingredient.
It is a good idea to be very careful of supposed natural bristle toothbrush and natural often means they use
the hair of pigs and boars.

Kraft Cheese and the Official Letter They Send Out About Their Cheeses

After I sent out the last newsletter, a strict vegetarian wrote me to point out that she had received a letter
from Kraft stating that most of the rennet that they used in their cheeses came from a vegetarian source and they
mentioned some of the cheeses that they manufactured which the rennet was derived from a meat sources and some
that the rennet was derived from a vegetarian source.
I was requested to state this in my next newsletter so that vegetarian eating Kraft Cheese would not feel bad
eating other cheeses than the ones that I listed in the newsletter that I sent out as acceptable.
VIEW READER'S LETTER.

I then wrote Kraft to get the same letter that she had received which if not carefully read would indicate
that most of the cheeses they produced did not contain any meat ingredients.
VIEW LETTER.

I then called Kraft and talked to a company representative and directly asked, "which of the cheese products
that you make can you guarantee me do not contain any animal products." I was then told on the phone that only the cheeses that they
listed in the letter as vegetarian were guaranteed to be vegetarian and that they would not guarantee any
other cheeses because even though many
of the cheeses would usually use a vegetarian rennet that this was not always so and therefore they could
not guarantee that the cheeses were vegetarian.

Also the enzymes used to make cheese is not the only non-vegetarian items that can be put in cheese as
other substances are often added to give cheese a particular favor and color, which are derived from a meat-based source.

I have talked to many companies over the years as I am sure many readers of this newsletter have and have
often been given answers that were difficult to understand exactly what was being said and after repeating my standard question "Does this product contain any meat, fish or egg products?"
Regardless of what they say unless it is yes or no, I repeat the question that this is a YES or NO question
. "Can you guarantee that this products does not contain any meat byproducts, Yes or No?"
They may say "Most of our products are vegetarian."
I then answer yes I know you said that, but is the product that I am asking you about free of any animal products,
Yes or No?"

his is a highly recommended site to check out vegetarian cheeses.
They have a list of vegetarian cheeses by brand and type of cheese.
They clearly list which cheeses by brand contain animal rennet and which do not. It is updated regularly.
The people who do this site are really nice, spiritual people.

May be Derived from Either a Vegetarian or Animal Source
Diglyceride
Enzyme
Fatty Acid
Glycerol /Glycerine
Glyceride
Hormones
Lecithin
Monoglyceride
Phospholipid
Shortening (usually Plant but can be animal)
Whey (Sometimes it is vegetarian but sometimes it is made with animal rennet)

I now have hundred of pages of information on vegetarian food ingredients that I am working
on and every donation that I receive frees up time for me to spend time to bring this info
rmation to being published.
If every person who reads this newsletter just makes a one-time donation of $20 this would
mean these newsletter will come weekly.
Please click here to donate. All donors that give $20 or more will receive a free copy of our USA
Vegetarian Restaurants & Health Food Stores book sent to them. Thank you in advance for your help.
All donors for this project will be listed in future newsletters.
Please give a donation now while it is still fresh on your mind.

Also you can help by purchasing products from our vegetarian and spiritual shop
NaturalNirvana.com

Also please check out our Vegetarian-Restaurants.net, which has the most detailed list of vegetarian,
vegan and raw food restaurants on the Internet.

And most important of all please do your part to help make this newsletter a valuable resource for
vegetarians and vegans
Please send in information on any companies that you may have found out about to:
vrupdates@yahoo.com
or call 1-877-899-0905